Wednesday, April 01, 2015

It's about 3 years since I stopped blogging here regularly.I have been busy, but I
have missed it, and today I think I have found the right note on which to begin again.

I am now 87, and a good deal
slower and more wobbly than I was when I began this blog in 2005.
Unfortunately, I have taken to falling over rather a lot in the last year or
two, with a couple of tumbles which pretty much put me out of action, for a chunk
of time I didn't want to miss. My GP has referred me to a local falls clinic, and
today I went to be assessed for which of two exercise classes would be
suitable for me.

I arrived rather early and
found the hall empty, but shortly a young man came in who had ‘INSTRUCTOR’ in
large letters across his chest. I thought this looked promising, but was a bit
confused by the fact that he was not only lean and muscled, but also
long-haired, and covered from shoulders to fingertips in some pretty intricate
and stylish tattoos.

I had expected, for
assessment purposes, a nurse- or doctor-like figure, but this was more in the
way of the ’personal trainer’ type, that causes such havoc in much of
popular drama and fiction. Surely he wasn’t going to be looking after me, and
the other rather wobbly looking lady who had joined me in the hall? But he was....

After I had
filled in a form about how much I feared falling in various circumstances, he
sat me down and began to ask me questions. He was gentle and easy to talk to,
and I ceased to find him inappropriate to my situation. He then asked me to
stand up, and proceeded to test my balance and flexibilty by putting me through various positions and moves. (No matter how I word it that sounds suspect - he never laid a hand on me). Suddenly I heard him say “Good Judith, nice hip movement”
and I began to wonder if I was in an April Fool’s fantasy. It was all I could
do not to burst into giggles.

I came home feeling rather jolly
and lighthearted, instead of the awkward and anxious person who had set out.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

If
this article makes you think, please don't close it without using the buttons at
the end to tweet it, share it and send it to your friends. This has been a
scream inside my head for months now.

What do you call a government
who's first act is to make it virtually impossible to remove them from power, no
matter how badly they perform? Who attempt to redraw the boundaries and cut the
numbers of constituencies purely so that it benefits their own side, thus making
it much easier for them to hold on to power?

What do you call a
government who use the media and their own departmental outlets to run a
partisan propaganda campaign against vulnerable groups? Who ensure that lies are
printed, policies are not criticised, information requests are not granted and
statistics are misrepresented?

What do you call a government who overturn
laws retrospectively to make court rulings against them obsolete?

What do
you call a government who erodes justice by ensuring the least able to defend
themselves can no longer access it? Or who remove the right for ordinary people
or organisations to take them to court? Or who limit the right to appeal
decisions?

What do you call a government who introduce a gagging bill
making it virtually impossible for third parties to oppose them through
democratic channels? Who threaten charities and our independent national news
service for covering important stories in the national interest?

What do
you call a government that ignores the advice of it's second chamber entirely,
effectively neutering it from providing the checks and balances true democracies
demand?

What do you call a government who ignores court rulings not once
but repeatedly that find their policies discriminate but ignore that ruling? Or
who whitewash consultations and entirely falsify their results - or ignore them
completely?

What do you call a government who tries to scrap the human
rights act and buy your employment rights from you?

What do you call a
government who send misleading and partial reports to our world partners on what
effects their policies are having on its citizens?

What do you call a
government who restrict education for disabled people and books for those in
prisons? Who design our children's education based on personal whims and
construct a syllabus that matches their own world view?

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

A song about the Bedroom Tax, written for the demos all over the UK on Saturday 30th March, 2013, the Glasgow one in particular. Set to the tune of 1960's folk song "The Jeely Piece Song", by Scottish singer-songwriter Adam McNaugton.

LYRICS

I'm a welfare state wean, we live on the bottom flair
But we're no allowed to even live there any mair.
They say we've got too many rooms, in our social rented flat
We've an eight by ten foot boxroom where you cannae swing a cat

Chorus:
Oh ye canna have a spare room in a pokey cooncil flat
Ian Duncan Smith and Co have put an end tae that
They say "live in a smaller house", they say that is their plan
When the odds against you finding one are ninety-nine to one

Noo ma auntie's in a wheelchair, but these Tories dinna care
They say they have a deficit, she got to pay her share
£60 a month they'll take, then leave her tae her fate
Whilst gieing millionaires a tax cut, cause they say they're due a break

Noo that Buckingham Palace looks a pretty roomy gaff
And the ludger there gets benefits at rates that make me laugh
A civil list, plus perks, worth nearly ninety million pounds
With her other dozen mansions lying empty a' year round

Noo those MPs doon in Westminster must think that we're 'a dense
Wi their second home apartments, where the public pays their rent
They're even get a food allowance, two hundred quid a week
But they're claiming we're the scroungers, is their arse up in their cheeks?

So we've formed a Federation and we're gonna have our say
The Bedroom Tax it has to go, and we ain't gonna pay
We're gonna march on London tae demand our civil rights
Like nae mair Tories and their Liberal shite

Do you need your Winter Fuel Payment in 1217-18?

About Me

This blog is about leaving my footprint behind when I go. It's also about finding out who I am now, even if it's a different person each day. It's about thinking, feeling, learning and changing - and about laughing too, I hope; and it's about filling my life with new people and making each new day interesting.